There is a “grossly anti-family tax system” in Britain that is in need of reform.

That’s according to Frank Young, the editorial director at the Civitas think tank

“The UK tax system unfairly judges parents – mostly mothers – who want to stay at home and look after children rather than spend their life as a workhorse in an office. Eight in ten mothers of children below school age want the tax system to help them spend more time with their children, rather than being pushed into work,” he wrote.

Yet, only about one in seven mothers with children under ten is not in work so as to care for their child full-time.

“We’re constantly told not to ‘judge’ different family types, but the state is not neutral, with single-earner couples heavily penalised for taking time away from the workforce to look after children. The UK tax system is based on individuals, rather than households or families. This puts single-earner couples, where one partner works and another takes on caring responsibilities, at a significant disadvantage”.

He suggested looking at Germany for a solution: “There, families benefit from ‘income splitting’, where ‘the tax of a married couple is determined by taxing half of their combined incomes and then doubling the amount to result in the total tax payable’”.